I created the 5.8 Gold CD, and used it to launch into a VectorLinux installation on a PIII 933MHz 128Mb machine. I followed all the step and made all the smart choices, and I was really excited when instructed to take the CD out of the drive to boot up the new os... reboot? HELL YES!... "Error loading operating system." Um, what? ... That's all, a blank screen with one line: "error loading operating system". An hour's work for naught. Argh!

OK, so anyone have any idea where I might have gone wrong. I partitioned what I believe to be a 20G drive into 19.5 for Linux, and .5 for swap. Is that not reasonable? I accepted mostly the defaults. No network. What gives?

What do I do next? Re-install? How do I know that I won't make the same mistake again? Oh, this is really frustrating. Any advice would so be appreciated.

Is the vectorlinux the only system in that pc or it shares with any other os? Try reinstall the bootloader from the installation. Also try change the hard disk option in bios from auto to maybe Large.. just give a try All the best.

Try booting the cd again, but when it has booted choose "Repair bootloader" or something like that (could be "repair lilo", I don't know for sure). Make sure you select it to install to MBR, as no bootloader seems to be present there.

Hmm, good suggestions. One thing to note: when it came time to install lilo or grub, one of the options was to skip. Since I'm not installing multiple OS's, I figured that I could just boot straight into VL, so I skipped. Maybe that's the issue. Thanks for the suggestions people, I'll let you know how it goes after I get home from work today.Paul.

You need lilo or grub installed. Or if you have it installed from a prior Linux OS, you at least need the partition with VL added to your Lilo or Grub config. Or they won't even know VL is there. You can fix that without reinstalling by booting the VL cd and going straight to Lilo.Good luck!

One thing to note: when it came time to install lilo or grub, one of the options was to skip. Since I'm not installing multiple OS's, I figured that I could just boot straight into VL, so I skipped. Maybe that's the issue.

Yes. That'll be it. Some boot loader needs to be in the MBR, that tells it what and how to boot. After install you can set lilo's time out to like 1 (0.1 second) and run "lilo" to apply the changes, so you won't have to select anything or wait for time-out very long.